Stars: Manic Street Preachers

Summary: Tracklisting details not advised.

Despite their original claims that they were going to sell 20 million copies of the debut album and then split up, the Manic Street Preachers have survived the tragedy of losing their guitarist Richey Edwards in mysterious circumstances to become elder statesmen of the British rock scene. This DVD collection includes 30 videos and 14 audio remixes.

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Continuously switching guises between progressive social commentators and mainstream AOR songsters, the Manic Street Preachers have always had a love-hate relationship with both music critics and the record-buying public. Forever Delayedvisually highlights this dichotomy, as well as exposing their contradictory stance towards capitalism. Dependent on the free market to disseminate their material to the masses but at the same time deeply aware of the inequalities it causes, the group has continuously tried to achieve a balance between the political and popular. The videos express these paradoxes, with production usually falling into one of two categories: the in-yer-face political promos ("Little Baby Nothing", "So Why So Dad?"), and the everyday ("Found That Soul", "Ocean Spray"). Sadly, despite their riotous intentions, the videos made up of live concert material ("Life Becoming a Landslide", "The Masses Against the Classes") sit in the latter category, primarily because of their predictability.

Matching the style and typeface of their release artwork, one of the group's long-standing favourite video techniques for their more politically inclined releases has been the incorporation of critical slogans and quotes. From "You Love Us" to 1999's "Tsunami", sublime and usually incomprehensible messages are flashed on the screen. Whether these are radical anti-capitalist messages or pretentious stylistic techniques to sell more records is unclear. It seems the jury remains out on the real motivations behind both these videos and the band itself.

On the DVD:Forever Delayedfeatures all 30 of the band's videos, from "Motown Junk" (1990) to "There by the Grace of God" (2002), plus 14 bonus remixes, a discography and photo gallery. All of the audio material is presented in either Dolby stereo or the more wholesome 5.1 surround format. Even the remix tracks have accompanying visual material, usually made up of clips from the original video, rare footage, and photographs of the band. The menus follow the design and typeface of the album artwork, making them stylish but at times difficult to read. The icons and on-screen track listing are also complicated to access. --John Galilee

Main Language:	English
Region:	Region 2
Special Features:	Stills Gallery, Discography
Year:	2002
Release Date:	November 18, 2002
Certification:	Exempt.
Catalogue Number:	2017769
Keywords:	Music, Street, Rock, Forever, Pop, Performing, Arts, Preachers, Popular, Manic, Delayed
Genre:	Music/Performing Arts